Scott Marshall, Beaufort County election’s director, gave a more conservative guess. “If previous turnout is any indicator, we will be lucky to hit double digits,” he said.

The contest features four candidates for two seats, both elected townwide to four-year terms starting in January. Political newcomers Ted Huffman and Karen Lavery are trying to unseat six-year incumbent Fred Hamilton Jr., the mayor pro tem, and four-year incumbent Allyne Mitchell.

Polls for the six precincts in Bluffton will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday. The deadline to register to vote in the election was Oct. 10.

Mayor Lisa Sulka is unopposed in her bid for a second term. Since no one declared as a write-in candidate after the filing deadline, the mayoral post will not be on the ballot. “There will be no possibility of casting a vote for a write-in candidate for mayor,” said Marshall.

Cooke, an Old Town resident and former town councilwoman, made her turnout prediction Wednesday at the League of Women Voters’ sponsored forum at Town Hall, which about 50 people attended.

Weather-wise, the long-range forecast is for partly cloudy skies, a 10 percent chance of rain and a 70-degree high.

In Bluffton’s last stand-alone election, in November 2009, the turnout was about 9.7 percent, Marshall said. In the council’s staggered terms election system, that election brought a three-way contest in which incumbent Oliver Brown and newcomer Mike Raymond won and incumbent Charlie Wetmore lost.

Hamilton said the small turnout at Town Hall indicated low voter interest.

Huffman and Lavery both think the turnout will better the 9.7 percent in 2009, partly because more people in the annexed areas in Buckwalter and around S.C. 170 are realizing they live in town and can vote in town elections.

“I’m encouraged. We’re mixing things up,” Huffman said.

Lavery, the only candidate living in the Buckwalter area, was buoyed by the turnout of about 80 people at a forum last week at the Hampton Hall Clubhouse and said she thinks interest is high in Pinecrest, where a team including her and campaign manager Joanie Heyward “knocked on 934 doors.”

At the Wednesday forum, Mitchell said she expects a good turnout but did not give a figure.

Absentee voting has been slow. As of Thursday morning, 31 people had voted. When the absentee polls closed Friday afternoon, 34 ballots had been cast, including 27 in person and seven mail-ins. There are four outstanding mail-in ballots.

ISSUE STANDS

Candidates have participated in at least five forums and generally agree on most of the issues.

Everyone wants to save the May River, keep taxes down and bring more good jobs to Bluffton.

The main dividing issue is over the town’s affordable housing program and the grant-funded neighborhood revitalization project bringing six modular cottages to Robertson and Wharf streets.

Lavery and Huffman think the town should not be in the home-building business, but Lavery has suggested the town should look at buying foreclosed properties and reselling them as affordable housing.

Hamilton, who chairs the Affordable Housing Committee, says the project will improve the neighborhood, bring the “American dream” to first-time homeowners and should be expanded to other areas.

Both Mitchell and Hamilton said at the Wednesday forum the Town Council has a good working relationship, is making good progress, and they would like to continue their efforts for Bluffton.

Huffman and Lavery both say they would bring needed new blood to the council. Huffman’s campaign signs say he would bring “common sense.” Lavery’s signs note her civic involvement, including leadership roles with the Bluffton Rotary and the Bluffton Village Festival.

All of the candidates have emphasized being accessible to constituents.

Both Lavery and Huffman have talked about finding ways to better communicate with constituents, including televising meetings. Lavery suggests sometimes holding council meetings in the meeting room at the Law Enforcement Center in Buckwalter Place. And she says she would schedule neighborhood “fireside chats.”

EXPERIENCE CHALLENGE

Hamilton emphasizes his “perfect attendance record … to show that I’m passionate and committed and when our citizens can’t come for any reason, I want them to know I’m going to be there to represent them; I’m going to be their ears and eyes, and when decisions are made, I want to be at the table. I think that shows a passion.”

At Tuesday’s forum at Pinecrest, he challenged the council attendance records of Lavery and Huffman.

“I said that publicly, that they have not participated (by attending council meetings) or any workshops, so that’s why they can’t make informed decisions about what’s going on,” Hamilton said.

“You can’t really be a student unless you come to where the class is,” he said.

At every council meeting, he said, “I try to make eye contact with everybody in the audience. That’s easy to do; we don’t have a lot of people coming.”

Hamilton said he recalled Huffman at a few meetings but said he’d never seen Lavery.

Lavery on Thursday night said, “I’ve been to plenty of meetings,” including council and Planning Commission meetings and Accommodations Tax Committee meetings. She said she couldn’t routinely attend meetings when she worked, but since retiring has plenty of time for that.

“I have probably been to at least 10 council meetings,” she said.

Huffman said he has attended some council meetings as a member of the town’s Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee. At the Feb. 8 meeting, council minutes note Huffman supported re-establishment of the town election commission, which Hamilton initiated.

Huffman said local election oversight was needed to prevent mix-ups like in 2008, when the elections of Hamilton and Mitchell were challenged after losing candidates said some voters told them they lived in town but did not get town ballots.

Huffman also advocated switching to a ward system, which he continues to back.

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